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« on: October 15, 2010, 10:11:11 PM »
DLC: Digitally Enhancing Your Game Experience. If You Know What I Mean.
When considering the recent trend of straight to your console/PC downloadable content (or "DLC"), two main issues crop up: questionable game content definition and possible implications of unfavorable business strategies at work.
Where Does The Game End?
With a game that has downloadable content how does one determine the boundary of where the game ends? The obvious approach is the say the game is complete as it was on release, the single unit purchase with no other separate transactions attached; anything else is extraneous and not core to the definition of where the game begins and ends. The opposite approach is that the game is not complete until every single piece of "DLC" associated with the game was been completed and added, making it whole. The latter definition can be troubling when considering that a game could potentially have never ending DLC. The game Dante's Inferno features DLC that is boasted as being prequel material. Some games, such as L4D2 and PAIN, even feature free game modes/stages that appear temporarily, coming and going in a short period of time, further complicating the issue.
Where Does The Transaction End?
DLC can be viewed as a way to make people pay extra money for the "whole" game. A major example of this is the game Fallout 3, where the main plot line of the game can be extended by way of an optional DLC pack, called Broken Steel. This DLC costs money and it can be argued that consumers are being asked to pay for an ending they might feel they deserved a right to when they initially bought the game. The concept of planned DLC, DLC that was planned and ready to launch when the original core game did, can strengthen the concept that DLC is an unfair exchange, selling a product piecemeal when the consumer is expecting to get the entire experience for the money they paid. The other viewpoint would be that DLC is unnecessary to enjoying the "core" game and is a completely optional way to extend your enjoyment of the product by purchasing new game play content related to it. Many consumers greatly enjoy DLC and are eager to purchase additional content such as maps, new game modes, and sometimes plot extensions to their favorite titles.
Questions, questions, questions.
How do you personally define the "wholeness" of a game: core product, all DLC gathered, or something else entirely? How does the idea of "nomadic content" (content that comes and goes) affect your idea of game wholeness? Does the definition of what makes a video game whole matter? Should consumers expect a complete story experience in a plot-oriented game, or is story related DLC fair game? Does the concept of preplanned DLC seem troubling compared to DLC created after the core game is released? Why or why not?
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